Last Minute Gifts

I’ve mentioned it in passing, beating around the bush, but now that December is here, there’s no escaping it: Christmas is coming. If you are under the age of yuletide responsibility, these words are probably accompanied by joy and cheer! But adults hear the sounding of a death knell as they realize they still haven’t bought Christmas cards. (Maybe that’s just me. I once got a Christmas card from a friend so organized that she sent them in October. No joke.) Knitters know this more than most, because in addition to the usual tasks of baking cookies, decorating, attending parties, shopping, wrapping, etc., we take it upon ourselves to demonstrate our love in woolens.

I got things under control last year: I only knit for folks I really wanted to, and kept everything else super-simple. Remember the year of the dishcloth? But this year, things have gotten away from me a bit. Loads of my monthly socks have gone into the Christmas Planning Box, but when you have no money and a lot of stash, it’s hard to resist knitting more things for loved ones. (Especially when they are clever and actually ask in advance. They’re getting cleverer.) This means that it’s 23 days until Christmas, and I still have two hats, two pairs of socks, six toys, a cowl, and a pair of slippers to knit. I am not going to give myself a panic attack over this; I really am okay if some of these lovely people get a book.

With that said, let me put my business hat on and tell you that, even though I’ve got myself in a swell old-fashioned lurch, Mum and I aren’t about to let you down. Mum knit these two cute samples this spring, before Sheep & Wool, to show off her new Kirby Woolpaca yarn. Big life lesson: Don’t show a sample if you don’t have the pattern. A hundred inquiries later, Mum wrote up the patterns, and now they are edited and posted for public consumption. Both free – call it a St. Nicholas’ gift. They will both make great last-minute gifts, or as a gift for yourself to keep you going through the pile of felted slippers you’re probably under.

At the same time, we’re taking this as an opportunity to launch our new Kits Store. This will speed up the process a bit, and when you order the yarn as a kit, we’ll include a color copy of the pattern. Before long, we hope to have all of the patterns that use our yarn up as kits. For now we just have these two up there, since the page is still under construction. (But it still works – December means you don’t waste time on cosmetic hindrances.)

Three Part Invention is a cowl, knit in the round, designed to maximize a wild multi-colored yarn while learning some new stitches. It includes a knit-and-purl pattern, a slip stitch pattern, and a traveling-twisted-stitch pattern. If you’ve never done these, this is a good way to learn. It was knit with two skeins of Kirby Woolpaca, and the pattern can be downloaded here. You can order the kit here.

The Sassy Sampler Scarf is another experimenting/teaching scarf, this time with 13 different stitch patterns of all difficulties. It was knit with two skeins of Kirby Woolpaca, and the pattern can be downloaded here. You can order the kit here.

Now it’s time to go back to watching Buffy and knitting tiny cotton dogs.